


Worlds Apart

by Lithosaurus



Series: Realm Switch [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-04-08 18:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4315938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lithosaurus/pseuds/Lithosaurus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In DC, Director Odin Blake runs a tight ship at SHIELD's headquarters. Somewhat messier is his relationship with his two sons.<br/>In Asgard, the realm is still reeling from the fall of an ancient dynasty and things are just getting worse as a new and dangerous faction rises to set its sights on a power that hasn't been disturbed in over a millennium.<br/>And in Tonsberg, Norway, an interesting discovery is made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Earth I

**Author's Note:**

> This has been an idea that's knocked around my head since I first watched Thor. A realm switch where the Asgardians are from Earth and the Earthlings are from Asgard. I haven't quite figured out the best way to put this idea into a story but it's happening, let's go.

The lights from the flashlight he had grabbed bobbed as they ran. It seemed to make more shadows than it disperse but that fit the general situation. The lights throughout the research facility were either burned out or running on lower emergency power. The klaxon meant to set all agents on alert warbled weakly. His own fear made every one of those shadows seem like they were hiding an assailant or a body. When the power surge had first hit, Thor had been in the command room full of delicate information arrays. Many of the electronics had exploded in sparks or burst into flames around them but the emergency communication channels between the office and the lower level research labs had still worked and that was what had him scared as he sprinted through the hallways.

“We need-” the voice on the other end sounded shaky, even through the staticy line. “-down here! Something came-…-portal. Requesting-” whoever had been on the other end, their request ended with a sharp gasp. Even as the message was coming through, the agents present scrambled. The facility director leapt to his feet and began to bark out orders to his staff. The lone tech expert looked like he was going to cry over the smoking computer array in front of him. The specialists they’d transported in to deal with the artefact’s changes slunk to the corner of the room as agents leapt to their stations. Thor and his Strike team jumped to their feet. They knew where they were needed.

Even with all the chaos and uncertainty, Thor shouldn’t have been afraid. He was a highly trained SHIELD agent with four more close behind him. They were all meant to run towards danger without fear slowing them down. He shouldn’t have been feeling fear but he was, the kind of anxious fear that didn’t even bother to run through worse case scenarios before jumping to the end conclusion that the worse had already happened. It was the type of fear that turned his guts cold and threatened to turn into panic. He shouldn’t have been experiencing any fear but he was because his brother was in those labs. His brother was stuck in the labs with the artefact of unknown origins or abilities and a situation that warranted a code seven.

Pale blue light bled under the doorway from the stairwell to the secure lab. Thor punched in his authorization code and silently thanked whoever made sure the automatic locks were hooked to the emergency generators. The lock clicked open. He paused to count his team then carefully opened the door and slipped inside, guns raised. Even with the strange blue lighting, Thor could clearly see the scene in front of him and it made his gut clench.

At the foot of the cube’s cradle, a knot of unfamiliar people gathered on the platform. They wore what looked to be a strange sort of armor and dark gray, skull-like face masks with black eye sockets. Most of the labcoats he had seen every time he’d been down here were huddled next to their computer arrays or sprawled on the ground disturbingly still. Two of the scientists were on their knees a pair of intruders flanking them but Thor saw a patch of white bent over the pulsating artefact, surrounded by more of the unidentified hostiles.

“Step away from the cube!” He barked out in the ‘federal agents: do as we say’ voice he’d spent years perfecting. The scientists who could, jerked their heads over to them, relief writ large over their faces. The masks didn’t move but that didn’t mean they didn’t size up the Strike team.

“Step away and place all weapons on the ground.” He commanded.

One of the intruders next to the cradle turned and took a few slow steps towards them. Unlike the others, his faceplate had a red hue. With the blue glow it looked darker and slightly purple but Thor could guess what color it was supposed to resemble. He stepped off the platform and stopped half way between the Strike team and the group. Even from here, Thor could tell all of them were exceptionally tall. The one who approached them had to have a least three inches on him.

“So you are the little soldiers we were threatened with.” His voice had a weird accent to it that Thor couldn’t place. “Not quite what was described but maybe I have high standards.” A few snickers rose from the men behind him. From the laughter, the faceplate, and his attitude, Thor guessed that this was their leader.

A flare of anger melted some of his fear. “I assure you we meet very high standards.” He growled.

The leader chuckled to himself. “Bor was a fool to trust such power to such a small, childish race. I see that you have tried to study it but I’m sorry to say your simple minds and archaic technologies will never understand what has fallen into your lap.” He turned back to the cube. Thor took the pause to run over the scientists he could see. Loki wasn’t there but perhaps he got out before things got bad. His self-preservation instincts and tendency to prefer plotting to spitting in the face of his problem would point to that.

“Sir, there are more of them coming.” One of the soldiers warned.

“They are not a threat.” The leader replied.

“Not to us.”

“Is the return trip ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. I regret to say that we must be off, little soldier.” The leader turned back to the cradle.

“I don’t think so. On your knees or we will shoot.” Thor calmly ordered. The calm was a charade. Whoever they were, he was beginning to suspect they were SHIELD’s normal fare. More than that, he hadn’t gotten a clear look at the scientist next to the cradle.

“That would be educational.” There was a smile in the leader’s voice.

Thor eyed him for a second then aimed and pulled the trigger. The red skull mask snapped backwards like he’d thrown a punch but the man didn’t fall. He leveled his head again and rolled his neck. A small scrape of pale metal shown through above one of the eyes. Sif shot twice, hitting him in the chest. He didn’t even flinch.

“Sir, we’re ready to go.” One of the soldiers reported.

“Very good. I thank you for the experience, gentlemen. And lady, it seems.” The red mask turned and walked back toward the cube.

A sound like ripping paper and the thunder of a waterfall roared through the lab. A shadow bloomed beside the cube. Thor’s brain struggled to process it. The lack of light made the ovoid darkness seem almost two dimensional but a gut feeling told him it was far more than that.

Whatever these hostiles were, they could not be allowed to escape. Thor sprinted forward and dove for the leader’s back. Behind him, more gun shots rang out behind him. He wrapped his arm under the face plate and pressed his forearm into his man’s neck. He felt a hand wrap around his wrist and braced himself for the intruder’s attempt at pulling his arm away. Instead, he squeezed with far more strength than any human should have. Thor felt his wrist crack and yelped at the pain but kept his arm in place. The red masked intruder rolled and slammed him backwards onto the cold concrete floor. Thor’s vision wavered and his grip slackened despite his best efforts. The hostile pulled away.

A familiar voice yelled his name. He rolled over, craning his neck towards the cradle. His stomach sank as he saw Loki running towards him. He pushed himself up on his good arm. Before his brother could cover half the distance, the leader darted sideways and hooked his hand around Loki’s neck. Thor heard Fandral grunt in pain to his left but he only saw the look of surprise on his little brother’s face as the red skull lifted him off the ground.

“We have use for you yet.” The hostile whispered, perhaps meaning to say it too low for Thor to hear. He carried Loki away like he was a rag doll. Thor surged to his feet but could only take an unsteady step before the man with his hand around Loki’s throat plucked the cube from its cradle and stepped into the pitch-black blob next to him. The last of the intruders followed him, one needing to throw Sif off himself before diving into the shrinking mess.

It winked out with a crack. Without the roar of the portal, the lab seemed deathly quiet. He heard and was distantly aware of his team checking the scientists. The door slammed open again and the sound of boots on concrete told him more agents had arrived. He should be on his feet. He should be evaluating casualties and rehashing the important details of what just happened for his report. At the very least he should be self-assessing his injuries. But he couldn’t because he just watched some alien being grabbed his brother and walked through an impossibility.


	2. Asgard I

“We lost them in the Pocketlands.”

“Any idea where they were headed?”

“No. It could be that the Pockets were a desperation play. It could also be that Schmidt knew exactly where he was going and planned on it.”

“So we’re back to not knowing where he is or what he wants.”

“No, we know what his end goal is. And we know where he’s not. We just don’t know how he wants to achieve his end goal.”

“That’s so close to nothing it hardly matters, Stevie.”

Stefan didn’t answer. He stayed in the same position he took when he first approached the throne, kneeling on one knee and holding his helmet at his side. It was stiff and formal, made worse by the fact he just spent two months chasing fugitives halfway across the realm and back. His armor was dirty with sweat, horse hair, and the pale, clinging mud that covered the Pocketlands. It was all quite a bit different than how the King looked with his formal, useless armor and imported elven linen.

There was a time when Captain Stefan Sarasen Carter and Howard Stark, King of Asgard and the Nine Realms, would never had been stiff with each other but that was several centuries ago and plenty had happened since then. A distance had grown between the two friends. It was quite a literal distance at the moment.

Stark sat on the throne of Asgard with its grandiose steps stretching between them. Carter had to tilt his head up and raise his voice to make his report. The massive hall seemed cold despite all its gold and light. There was a coldness between the two men as well. A bitter thought edged into the captain’s mind. The scene mirrored how they first met each other rather nicely. Stark was the first and only son of a noble house which meant he was clean and warm with all the benefits of wealth and power. Stefan was born a commoner’s bastard and was back where it started, covered in dirt and sweat kneeling before a king after putting his life on the line for the good of the kingdom.  He stomped down on that thought. Things were far better now than they had been when Bor had been king, for the realm and for himself.

“Anything else?” Stark asked when he didn’t answer.

“I’ve coordinated with both Vanir and Aesir families in the region to set up regular patrols of the areas bordering the Pockets. Sending forces in directly would be a deathtrap. We don’t know how well Hydra is settled in the region and we have no maps or in-depth experience to work from. It’s earned its reputation, really."

Stark grinned slightly as Steve slipped back into his common-born vernacular and accent. “Relay any progress immediately. Now, excuse me, I have to go convince the Amunds and the Fiskers that a lover’s quarrel between a pair of two-centuries isn’t worth bloodshed.” Stark stood, gave a flourished bow, and swept out of the room.

Steve rose from his kneel and left the throne room through one of the side doors. It was tucked in amongst the towering columns built to support the hall’s roof. Each one represented one of the noble houses, paralleling how they were meant to support the King. It was well disguised with the shadows cast by the pillars and the carefully textured paint meant to match the walls. There were doorways, passages, and alcoves like this all across the ancient building, creating an odd mix of wide open windows with streaming light contrasting secretive, shadowy intrigue.

He crossed the empty hallway and lifted the tapestry of Buri and Audumbla. Steve pushed through the glamor over the hidden passage way. The cramped spiral staircase required him to tilt his head and turn his torso sideways to fit. Three dozen steps later and the narrow walls opened onto a well-hidden perch overlooking the throne room. Few knew it even existed, fewer knew how to reach it. Peggy had told him a century after they had put Stark on the throne after he asked how she always seemed to know what went on the hall’s ‘private’ meeting even without any of her little birds present.

'Ches showed it to me when I first started in the Rookery.' She had explained. 'The warding spells keep the throne room soundproof to anyone outside of the hall but don’t affect this. It appears to have been built into room when the palace was constructed but it’s not known for sure.'

“That could have gone better.” She stated mildly.

“Coulda gone a whole lot worse, too.”

Peggy ignored what the months of travel grime would mean for her clothes and stepped forward into his arms. Two months was not a long time in terms of an Aesir lifespan but it was far too long to spend apart from his wife. He made sure he could still remember all the details that came from a moment like this; the feeling of her ribs expanding and contracting beneath his arm; the smell of soap, perfume, ink, and (inescapable for anyone who worked in the Rookery) raven droppings, the warm falling sensation that tugged at his gut when he saw her, even after a thousand years of knowing each other.

She was the one to step back first, though she weaved her fingers through his before speaking. “You’re back in one piece.”

“Just like I said I’d be.”

“Any casualties?”

“No, we were chasing them. Barely even got a glimpse of Schmidt after he hit Solvik Pass let alone got close enough to fight. It was scent trails and the occasional hoof tracks. I’m afraid the horses won’t ever forgive us for the pace we had to keep. Actually; riding sores. Those count as casualties and there are plenty of riding sores. Buck personally made sure I knew he got riding sores.”

“I’m sure he’ll never be the same.” Peggy grinned.  “Are you up for a bit more riding?”

“Somewhere worth riding to?” She wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important. At the moment Steve was ready to put off everything that wasn’t sleep, food, a bath, or a private place with his wife.

“Definitely. Antony thinks they’ve found a way to fix what Villi did to the Bifrost Observatory. If we get the bridge back we won’t need the Pocketlands to leave the realm like Schmidt does.”

“Do you think that he’s actually found something or is this like the dozen other times he’s thought he’s fixed it?”

“Banner and the Fosters seem to think he’s on to something.”

“On to something that will take another century to finish?”

“They seemed optimistic but it is hard to tell with them.” She slipped past him and led them back down the narrow corridor, pausing to check the proximity spells behind the tapestry before pushing back out into the hallway.

They took the ride to the Observatory slowly and used it to catch up on two months of developments they both missed. From this distance, the city seemed peaceful. The palace’s golden spires glimmered in the sun and the only sound was water rushing over the edge of the world into the Void. The noise and grime produced by millions of people living in one place was tremendous, even in a place as organized and advanced as Asgard. The peace didn’t last long. As soon as they got in earshot of the Observatory, distant yelling could be heard. Once closer, they could pick out words and tones.

“…not if I’m not going to be an absolute idiot about it, Banner.”

“It’s not idiotic to advise a little caution, _Stark_.”

“We’ve been cautious for- shite- for decades.”

“So it would be rather unfortunate to ruin that now- why did you just swear?”

“Nothing, already fixed it. See?”

“Is that _blood_?”

Peggy laughed under her breath. “Are you glad to be home yet?”

“It’s good to see that nothing major’s changed.” He replied dryly.

They dismounted next to the Observatory walked through the arched doorway. Jana and Erik were working quietly at their desks in the mess of stacked tomes, crates of equipment, and used seidr parchment piled along the outside of the circular room.  Banner had one hand against the fractured control sheath to steady himself as he craned his neck backwards and squinted up at the ceiling.

“Tante Peggy! And that bastard she seems to like!” Antony shouted down at them. He poked his head through slats in the Observatory’s spires.  

“Try not to fall.” Steve yelled back. “It would make my job a lot harder.” A sarcastic snort reached them.

“He is wearing a harness, correct?” Peggy asked Banner.

“Yes, he wouldn’t tempt death for that.” He grumbled back. “It wouldn’t be enough fun.”

“It’s a good thing Howard doesn’t know about his.”

“About his son crawling around on the top of the Observatory or him using seidr?”

“I was going to say this project in general.”

Banner winced. “Yes. That, uh, is probably true.”

Peggy blinked twice, giving Banner time to squirm a bit then continued, “You said that there was something promising?”

Banner straightened up and turned towards the desks. “We think we found a way to get around the aiming problem. That, combined with generators on the waterfall, should make the Bifrost useable. In very, very specific situations but still useable.”

With the hiss of a rope spinning through the harness pulley and the thump of boots hitting the ground, Antony joined them on the ground.

“Which is better than what we had before,” Antony shrugged. “and we’ll be able to refine it once we have something to work with. Which will be the tricky part.”

“Mind explaining why it will be so tricky?” Steve asked.

“It relies on Schmidt doing something we don’t want him to do.”

“Antony, that’s close to the worse way to word it.” Jana sighed.

“But true, right?”

“Erik, please clarify.” Peggy turned to the oldest person present.

“We have the energy and seidr to create a bridge between two points.” He explained calmly. “It’s fairly basic, seidrkonur have been doing for generations at short range. As long as one can see where they are transporting themself, a child can do it. What made the bifrost so powerful was its ability to focus the transportation across incredible lengths.” He stood and walked to the fractured sheath rising out of the ground.

“Without this aiming mechanism, we can’t focus the bridge. And we can't use the aiming mechanism because it's locked to anyone without the blood of the Allfamily. Anyone who travels through it now could be flung anywhere in the universe with potentially catastrophic results. You know how we’ve struggled to replicate the original function of the Observatory for centuries. I can say, with near certainty, that it cannot be done with what we have available.”

“But you have figured out something.” Peggy cut into Erik’s rambling.

“Yes, Ma’am. We cannot aim the Bifrost as was done by the Allfamily dynasty. We can, however, still activate the bridge. What we needed was a point to aim it at so we didn’t throw the traveler into open space or a solid object. We eventually found a methods that should work.”

“We can follow anything sent along by the Pocketlands.” Antony interrupted. Erik glared at the overeager prince.

“The Pockets don’t follow any defined branches of Yggdrasil.” Steve frowned. “That’s what makes them so dangerous and unpredictable.”

“That’s what makes them so useful.” Antony corrected. “Schmidt’s been using them to jump between places for years. We think he’s either created an accurate map of the Pocket’s portals or he’s found a way to manipulate them into going where he wants to go. Transporting between two places like that would create an interdimensional passage, or at least send life through one that already exists.”

“Using a tracing spell to lock onto the two points of the passage, start and finish, we could aim the Bifrost, activate it and send forces through the bridge to either end.” Jana added excitedly.

“You’d need to know when someone was traveling through the Pockets.” Peggy pointed out.

“It’s a good thing we have the device once used to monitor the entirety of Yggdrasil, then.” Antony said, blithely.

“That’s what we have been focusing on recently. We still can’t use the full scope of the Observatory.” Banner spoke up. “We’ve been writing and rewriting seidr. We can now determine when an interdimensional bridge in the pockets is opened and used to transport mass.”

“And then activate the Bifrost and throw someone or something to either end.” Antony continued.

“Rather limited but-” Jana spread her hands in a broad gesture toward the control sheath.

“How much could we send through the Bifrost at one time?” Steve asked.

“The Kings and Queens of the Allfamily could send entire armies through at one time.” Erik spoke before his three younger fellows could continue to steal the show. “We do not have the knowledge to do so. They guarded their secrets carefully. We could, however, send a roomful then re-firewith a few moments re-focusing between.”

“We don’t know for sure if this even works.” Peggy warned. Antony made an insulted noise. “Let alone what sort of circumstances we’d be sending a force into.”

“Agreed. I would need confirmation that this works and preferably adequate scouting before attempt to land a force directly on the Hydra’s head. Assuming they’re forces are even near the portal they used. Assuming they don’t have a way to kill anything that comes through that isn’t Hydra. Assuming a thousand things.” Steve blew a breath out his nose.

“We semi-fixed the Bifrost.” Antony protested. “Could we be happy for a moment before you two worry about things like the realms ongoing war?”

 “The job never stops, Tony.” Peggy grinned back. “This is good work, a major breakthrough.” She didn’t add that at this rate of progress, the Bifrost would be working again roughly around the time Antony’s grandchildren took the throne.

“We can tell where the two points of the bridge exist.” Jana piped up. “That’s why we brought it to you. I thought you’d want to monitor where Schmidt is going. I hadn’t thought about sending troops directly into the Pockets with it.”

“That would be wonderful.” Peggy admitted. Not even her little birds reached the Pockets. It made them blind to what Hydra was doing, something she was not familiar or comfortable with. “The moment there is any movement, I want to know.”

“I’m going to suggest something you won’t like.” Steve said.

“Thank you for the warning.”

“For you; always.” Antony made another, louder disgusted noise which Steve ignored. “Depending on the realm on the end of the bridge, I want to follow.”

Peggy didn’t answer, just frowned and crossed her arms.

“We need to know what Schmidt wants.” Steve explained. “I’m assuming he set his base in the Pocketlands for more than just privacy and the atmosphere. If I could take a small team through, we could learn what he’s trying to achieve with the portals.”

His wife nodded and considered his argument. It was valid, they both knew.

“With a team?”

“A carefully selected team.”

“Would anyone in the Pocketlands be able to detect someone following them?” Peggy turned to the assembled specialists. They exchanged glances. Banner started a sentence three times and stopped before finishing his thought.

“It would be incredibly complicated even with proper equipment.” Jana concluded after a moment. “And I doubt they even know anyone could follow them. Not even a dozen people know we’re doing this and the Spymaster is one of them- A tether!” She finished with a shout.

“That would be simple enough, though there’d be a delay between launch and pick up.” Antony caught on to her idea. “And we wouldn’t be able to guarantee it wouldn’t carry more than the people we were trying to pick back up.”

“What about individualized beacon style tethers.” Banner countered.

“We’d need to narrow down the scope of the bridge.” Erik pointed out. “It would all be doable but would take time to perfect. We can do it Ma’am.” He beamed at her.

“Do what exactly.” Peggy asked politely.

“Oh! Right, sorry, Ma’am.” Jana flushed. “A tether between whoever we send through the bridge and this location. It could send a distress call with a dimensional location attached for an emergency exit.  If there ends being a small army of Hydra purists on the other end, you could activate the tether and the Bifrost would pull you right back. As long as you stay with a short distance of where the bridge lands. And we don’t have to re-aim it.” She paused and frowned. “Farr? Do you think inter-space shortening would cut down on communication delay if the bridge ends too far away?”

“I would use mass duplication but that would limit the amount of information we could send.” Erik pointed out.

“Before you get lost in your next project,” Peggy interject. “Is there anything else I should know?”

The specialists glanced between themselves.

“No, Ma’am.” Erik reported.

“Then I have business elsewhere.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Steve agreed. Antony made his loudest disgusted noise yet. “I’ll select a unit to go with me- if it comes to that. Stationing them here for an immediate response will work.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She shot back.

“It’s rude to make fun of someone’s accent.” He huffed. He knocked his shoulder into her as they walked towards the door. She shoved him back and took off at a run for the horses.

“Think of stakes on the way, Sarasen?” She called as she sung into the saddle.

“We’ll think of something.” He yelled back and they raced back across the glowing bridge into the golden city they both struggled to protect.


	3. Asgard II

Precisely two days and three hours later, a crow woke both of them up by screaming.

“Give me your message.” Peggy ordered the bird, mainly to get it shut up and hop off their headboard.

It fluttered onto her arm, shifted a bit, then calmly delivered Antony’s panicked; “Get down here, we were right!”

“That can’t be good.” Steve hissed as he scrambled out of bed for his clothes.

“New message.” Peggy instructed the crow. “To anyone in the stables: we need two fast horses as quick as possible.”

The bird repeated the message and flew back out the open window. Steve didn’t bother fully tightening the straps on his armor, just stepped towards the balcony with his arms open. Once fully dressed, Peggy hooked an arm over his neck and held on as he stepped off the railing and dropped to the courtyard below. She could reach the stables and probably the observatory faster with a quick shape shift but there weren’t many things that could match the rush of adrenaline as they dropped together. They ran through the palace to the stables where confused looking groom waited with two saddled horses.

From the stables, they galloped across the Bifrost as fast as they dared. They would be seen, without a doubt. Even in the dead of night, there would be watchers. The Observatory, when they reached it, was quite but tense. Clinton and Natasha stood at the ready on either side of the entrance. Antony paced the width of the Bifrost. Within the dome shaped room, they could see his three coworkers grouped standing and watching the control sheath.

“Schmidt is on the move.” Tony reported as they dismounted and rushed inside. “He’s heading to _Midgard_.”

“Hellice.” Steve swore. “Have your little birds heard anything about the humans or what’s hidden there?”

“Nothing.” Peggy shook her head. “But their reports come in with years between them. If the humans found one of them and tried to use it, we’ll have more problems than just Schmidt.”

“Surely we would have heard if any of the other galactic powers were turning their sights on Midgard.” Tony shook his head. Peggy frowned. Optimism wasn’t like him. As the next king, he should realize that Asgard was blind and weak without the ability to control the Bifrost or use the Throne of the Allfather. If the Xandarians, Chitauri, or even the rebellious Jotnar thought they could get away with taking Midgard and the power there, they would try it. Humanity unearthing one of the Infinity Gems and poking at it with their damnable curiosity might as well be announcing to the world that they had a powerful resource but lacked the common sense to keep that quiet.

“We need to get down there, now.” Steve growled.

“We have four tether prepared.” Jana stepped forward before Peggy could protest. “That means we can send down you, Clint and Nat, and myself.”

“Jana!” Erik protested. Peggy arched an eyebrow.

“Ma’am, I know you would be better suited for combat if it comes to that,” Jana spoke up again, trying to avoid any insult. “but one of us needs to go.” Shed spread a hand to indicate herself and the three men behind her. “If the humans have really found one of the Stones, they’ll need a seidrkonur who knows how to handle power like that. We’re the best in the realm and I’m the best suited to go.” She finished her defense with a nod. She was right. Erik had more experience, he had once even dealt directly with one of the stones, but he was past his prime. Tony’s martial training would have compensated for his specialty in engineering over Jana’s broader understanding but he was the heir to the throne. The act of risking him could throw the delicate political situation into chaos, let alone actually losing him. Banner wasn’t even a consideration for obvious reasons.

“We have the tethers if things go very wrong.” Jana added when Peggy delayed. “And I’m hardly helpless.” That was true. Erik Selvig Foster wouldn’t have let his daughter grow up without learning how to protect herself. Peggy turned to Steve.  He gave her a subtle nod.

“I hope you have this ready.” She turned to the younger woman.

“We do.” Tony grinned and crossed the room. He picked up four chains from his desks and handed them to the four who would be traveling to Midgard.  They were simple things but the tell-tale glimmer of seidr was woven into the metal.

“Just break the chain with a short tug and the Bifrost will grab you with a two second delay.” He explained. “That was as quick as we could make it. And try not to stand to close to anything large and living; the bridge might try to take parts of it along if it can’t distinguish which living bits are yours.”

“It will be able to distinguish which living bits _are_ ours, right?” Clint asked.

“Of course, just keep your elbows tucked in tight, alright, Sarasen?” Tony chatted as he and Banner began to route power from the batteries to the Bifrost. “That was a joke, by the way, you can laugh at those. Humorless, low-born.”

Peggy shrugged her jacket off her shoulders and handed it to Jana. “I hope you have a pair of trousers around here.” Jana nodded and untied her loose robes. Underneath, she was already wearing a pair of worn linen trousers and leather boots. She took the jacket carefully and pulled it on. It was too large but Peggy was able to tie the fastenings snug. The reinforced material and seidr woven into the lining would work against anything Midgardian technology could throw at them. The Bilgesnipe leather coat had served Peggy well in the past. She felt a bit of apprehension giving it to another woman about to go to a world not seen by Aesir for centuries.

The two soldiers and Natasha were already waiting at the far side of the Observatory, ready to be hurtled toward an alien planet. Jana took a deep breath, glanced to her father and joined them.

“Have a fun trip.” Tony muttered and pressed down on the broken sword embedded in the center of the room. There was a rush of light as the Observatory spun into action. It whirled faster and faster until, with a roar of rushing air, the four figures were whisked away. The mechanisms hummed as they wound down leaving three seidrmen and one spymaster in silence. Thousands of lightyears away, four pairs of boots hit the floor in a lab hidden deep below the ground.


	4. Earth II

 “Blake, on your feet.” Sif hissed at him. Thor tried to snap his attention away from the empty space on the platform and to the course of action he should be taking. In any other situation, he’d be mentally drafting a report, analyzing the damage done, speaking to the survivors, verifying that the rest of his team was still operation ready. His decades of training weren’t helping because this was something that preceded his training. This was _Loki_ , his brother, his best friend, the most influential force in his life. He felt panic growing as ice in his gut.

Thor took a breath, shoved the ice back down, and surged to his feet. He turned slowly to take in the room. Fandral had a hand over his gut but was standing straight. The handful of white-coated scientists he had seen earlier on the floor were either on their feet or moving gingerly. His brain slotted them into priority one. Protecting human life was supposed to be SHIELD’s goal and they happened to be the human life that would know the most about what just happened.

“Are any of our coms working?” He barked out.

“Hand radios are functioning.” Volstagg reported. “I’ll call for a med team.”

“Make sure it’s clear we’re on information lock down first.” Thor corrected. “We don’t know what that was. We’re going to assume-”

He was interrupted by a rush of cold wind and multicolored light filling the room. He spun and leveled his gun with his uninjured left hand. He could smell hot metal and ozone. Vapor, either steam or smoke rose from the platform that had previously held the cube. Four new figures stood where the kidnappers and disappeared moments earlier.

“On the ground, now!” Thor shouted. Behind his back, he gave a hand signal for retreat. Rather than listen to him as he had hoped (but didn’t expect) the four newcomers closed rank. The tallest lifted a shield and spear, pointing the weapon at him as two others tucked in behind him, sandwiching the smallest figure between them. It was a defensive position, trying to protect the short figure in the center. Aside from the puzzling hoplite get-up, one of the intruders had a bow knocked and pointed at him. Thor couldn’t see any weaponry on the third protector but he hadn’t seen any weaponry on the first group who had arrived.

“Identify yourselves and place your weapons on the ground.” He tried again.

The hoplite lowered his shield an inch and spoke, “I would first ask for your name and the name of where we are now.” His voice (or at least, Thor was assuming it was a he) had a similar implacable sound as the one who had taken Loki, though there was a definite difference.

“Not until I know what the hell I’m even talking to.” Thor said.

Thor could see the hoplite’s pale eyes narrow from under his winged helmet. “We are Aesir. We have come in pursuit of a criminal from our world.” Somehow that made sense. If aliens and teleportation could make sense. A hyper-advanced species would seem godlike to a pre-science culture. The stories he grew up with could have been based on real life, if misunderstood life.

“Aesir.” He repeated. “Aesir as in the Aesir of Asgard.”

“Yes. It has been some time since we have visited your world.”

“Aesir.” Thor repeated again, quietly and more against his will.

“Yes.” The hoplite repeated. He sounded amused. Almost like he was talking to a child.

“Sarasen,” The sheltered Aesir said quietly. “The technology I can see is far beyond what was last recorded on Midgard.” The hoplite hummed.

“When was the last time one of your people came here?” Thor asked.

‘Sarasen’ paused for a moment. “Roughly one thousand of your years ago.”

“Yeah, a lot can change in a millennia.” Thor snorted. It probably wasn’t wise to act so disrespectful to something on par with a god but he wasn’t in a mood for wisdom at the moment.

“I agree. It appears that you have encountered the fugitives we are pursuing.” Sarasen continued in good humor. “We mean you no harm but wish to apprehend any individual who arrived here prior to us.”

“Why?”

“Because they are part of an organization that means all of us harm.” And that good humor was gone.

Thor narrowed his eyes. Out of the corners of his vision he could see Sif and Hogan aiming at the Aesir. Fandral and Volstagg had already gotten the scientists out of the room.

“What possible reason could this harmful organization have for coming here?” It was a question he already knew part of the answer to. Seeing how they would react would speak volumes. Unless they could read his mind or already knew what had happened.

“Oh, Norns.” The tiniest of the Aesir burst out. “Look behind us. If that isn’t an observation post for a Stone I don’t know what it.”

“Jana,” Saracen warned.

“You, do you know what you were dealing with?” She continued. “Were you trying to figure out what you were dealing with?” Thor slowly lowered his gun.

“You seem to know what we were dealing with.” He answered cautiously.

“Sarasen, they’re human.” Jana huffed. The armored man still wasn’t looking at her. “Even if they advanced more than we thought they would, they don’t have a clue what they’re doing. They’re not a threat- to us. Not directly.”

“Don’t assume that.” The apparently unarmed Aesir growled. Sarasen locked eyes with Thor for a tense moment. The alien raised his spear tip to the ceiling, away from Thor, and stepped forward. The archer lowered his bow and took a step away from Jana. His unarmed Aesir mirrored the motion.

“There was a time when Midgard was considered a protected realm of the Asgardian Empire.” Saracen spoke slowly. “Whether your people respect that or not, we still hold the responsibility. We mean your world no harm, quite the opposite. For the moment, we will need to trust each other and work towards a goal that will benefit us both.”

Thor watched Saracen as he spoke and turned the words over in his head. He gestured for Sif and Hogan to lower their weapons.

“We’re going to need a lot of questions answered.” He warned.

“Understandable.” Saracen nodded.

“I want some names first.”

“I am Stefan, Son of Sara, Captain of the Einherjar of the King of Asgard, Protector of the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil.” He gave a bow. “Or Sarasen, when time is limited.”

Thor blinked. “That’s quite the act to follow.” He commented then regretted it. The first re-encounter with an alien race probably shouldn’t involve him insulting their names.

“Formalities of court do tend to create theatrical elements.” Sarasen shrugged.

“I’m Agent Thor Blake. Agent Blake, for our purposes. I work for a government agency called SHIELD; Strategic Homeland Intervention and Logistics Division.” The archer coughed. “Our founders wanted our purpose and name to agree.”

“Again, understandable. These are my fellow Einherjar, Clinton and Romanova.” He gestured to the two flanking Aesir. They both nodded, almost perfectly in synch. They both wore clothing that mixed leather and metal in similar, dark-themed uniforms similar to Sarasen’s. Theirs appeared lighter, less ornamented, and lacked his painted shield. The fourth Aesir wore no easily identified protection beside a heavy leather jacket and leather boots. Even her long, brown hair was simply tied back rather than tucked into Romanova’s elaborate, scalp-hugging braid.

“Jana Foster.” She spoke before Sarasen could introduce her. “I prefer Jana. I’m a seidrkonur who specializes in mass energy systems andstyrede kraft. I don’t quite know how that translates for you.”

“Agents Fandral and Hogan.” Thor jerked his head at his squad mates respectively. “Introductions aside, we have more questions.” Sarasen inclined his head. Thor assumed and hoped that was a gesture to start.

“Who the hell are you pursuing and why was he on Earth?”

“Earth?”

“Midgard.” Thor supplied, he thanked his mother for sticking to her Danish heritage, right down to making him pronounce folk tales correctly.

“An Aesir named Johan Schmidt.” Sarasen answered. “He has dubbed himself the Red Skull and leads a faction of extremists who oppose our ruling king and Asgard’s involvement with other sapient races, Mith- _Earth_ , included. I do not believe that he would come to your planet without an ulterior motive.”

“A Stone, Sarasen.” Jana interrupted. Before Thor could ask what she meant by that his earbud screeched. He winced and grabbed for his ear. Jana cocked her head but the others remained still.

“Blake, respond agent.” Bakshi barked out.

“I hear you, sir.” Thor depressed the talk button on his comm. “We need a communications shut down with everything not on base.”

“Already instated, Blake.” The facility director said. “Now tell me what the hell is going down there.”

Thor drew in a breath and turned over how best to explain the situation. He should have been drafting reports. “We’re not alone in the universe.”


	5. Borderlands I

Every breath hurt. His throat and neck felt bruised and constricted. The air around him was bitingly cold and felt worryingly thin. Every single raspy breath he drew in hurt. He was flat on his back with the cold ground hard against his spine. Loki knew how to deal with pain, he could deal with this. He exhaled sharply and then pulled in a long breath, ignoring the damaged muscles and growing urge to cough. Some of the nausea was easing up. Part of it could be attributed to the altitude or whatever else was making the air feel the way it did, the rest was almost like motion sickness rather than drugs. That didn’t mean he hadn’t been drugged; he couldn’t remember how he had gotten here.

He could recall the moments leading up to and following the wrinkle in space opening in the middle of the lab. A unit of inhuman but humanoid soldiers had filed out, possibly made lofty threats, Thor had kicked open the door in his usual fashion, then there was a hand around his neck and darkness. Loki cautiously opened his eyes and saw stars. He blinked a few times and squinted up into the sky. There were stars there, real stars with the clarity and color found in doctored Hubble photos.

“I was beginning to wonder when you would wake.” He remembered that voice. Severe and filled with authority but with an accent he couldn’t place, perhaps a mix of Danish and German. He remembered that voice hissing at him about ‘use’. Loki gritted his teeth and sat up.

The red masked alien was waiting for him. He stood a few yards away, patiently watching Loki. Behind him, his men stood in an orderly line beside saddled horses. There were two spare horses readied. Beyond the waiting aliens, Loki could see pale, flat earth. It looked almost like the surface of the moon with barren pocketed ground. On the far, far horizon, a smudge of dark mountains rose up. But above that, he could see stars. Stars that were disorientingly clear. There was now either no, or very nearly no atmosphere between them and where he stood now. The red faced leader snorted and stalked forward.

“Pathetic.” He growled. “Weak and ignorant. How a fragile species like humanity can stand contact with such power is beyond me. On your feet. We’ve waited too long as it.” He grabbed Loki’s bicep and hauled him to his feet. Loki jerked away, or at least tried. The grip on his arm tightened.

“Do not struggle. You will obey or-”

“You’ll kill me?” Loki laughed. “I doubt it. I have a ‘use’, remember? You were dumb enough to tell me th-”

The gloved hand was around his neck before he could register motion. The alien spun and forced him to his knees. A yard away, the world stopped. It wasn’t that there was a hole in the ground or that Loki couldn’t see what was there. There wasn’t anything to see. There was even a shadow or white light that usually stood in for the idea of nothingness. There was _nothing_ there. The nothing sat as a slight raised disc in the grey mud. Nothing in Loki’s understanding of physics or even his work with the cube could let him wrap his mind around what was (wasn’t?) in front of him. The hand on his neck forced him forward towards the hole in reality.

“Do you know what will happen to something like you if it fell into that unprotected?” The alien hissed in his ear. “Do you want to find out? Remember, I need you but I don’t need the rest of your backwater of a planet. You’ll do what I need from you or I’ll return and destroy the largest metropolis you have. Or, I’ll just find all the people whose short, miserable lives you care about and make you watch as I wipe from the face of reality.” The pressure left the back of his neck and Loki gasped, sucking in air desperately despite his attempts to seem unfazed. “If that doesn’t motivate you, know that I don’t need all of you. You can do what I require of you with, say a limb or two. Perhaps your eyes.”

Loki shivered against his will.

“Get on the horse.” The alien ordered.

Loki closed his eyes tight and tried to slow his breaths. He didn’t need extra oxygen and he had been too well trained to panic, even if a few choice faces flashed in his mind. He rose from his knees and turned. The cold voiced alien faced him, still waiting on him. There was a dent in the red mask where Thor’ bullet had hit. Alien or not, this man wasn’t infallible and he was still waiting for Loki to make the first move.

He straightened his shoulders and took a step forward. He crossed the sticking mud between him and the horse then swung into the saddle easily. He turned to watch the alien expectantly. He heard something that sounded like a snort and the alien took the last horse. He turned the animal and kicked it into a walked towards the distant mountains. Two of the men flanked Loki and his horse began to walk forward without a cue. The rest of the group fell into two straight columns behind them.

Loki wasn’t afraid. He recognized that he was in an unknown amount of danger but he wasn’t afraid. His fear was outweighed by other emotions. He was curious, excited, and more than a bit satisfied to be proven right about something he had suspected for a very long time.


	6. Earth III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched the Thor: Ragnarok trailer and remembered that I had two years forgotten fic with massive world building I had put large amounts of mental energy into. I also remembered that I had two drafter chapters I never posted for reasons unknown.

A childish part of Jana was disappointed by the first humans they met. This was the first time she had even had the chance to see Midgard rather than hear stories of it. Both of her fathers had traveled to the planet before and brought back accounts. Far had been shocked by their brutality and how they quickly they could change in nearly every aspect. Pa was more amused by the curiosity that seemed nearly ubiquitous with the species.  He had admired how they seemed to place the satisfaction of discovering something over any risks that came along with the unknown.

So far, the humans they met failed to meet her expectations. They seemed so cautious and fearful, though that was probably Schmidt’s fault. She had been secretly hoping that she would have been the one to bridge the gaps between their worlds. In the past, seidrkonur had come to Midgard to fight over territory or to study the species native to the planet, not try to act as ambassadors for the advances of Asgard and the Midgardians’ primitive ‘technology’.

But that technology! Even that wasn’t what she expected. Pa had described a race that had barely established written communication and didn’t even have widespread structured research. Here, she saw what looked to be crystal based information processors and charge based lighting. Perhaps they even were using basic unit manipulation for their energy production. All those were small jotun compared to the fact it seemed they were attempting to understand one of the Stones. Observation rather than just reverence or use would prove that the Midgardians really were on the cusp of joining the galactic society as one of Asgard’s satellite worlds, not just a protected realm or resource mine. The humans had a lot in their future and, judging from the current examples of the species, they had a lot of progress to make up.

She couldn’t help but feel a bit reassured with how Agent Blake reported their presence to his superior. He had been scared when the Bifrost had first put them down (considering that Schmidt had preceded them, she didn’t blame the human) but there had been just a touch of wonder in his voice when he realized they weren’t alone in the universe. She couldn’t begin to imagine how strange it would be to think the universe only had one inhabited planet. She was being childish but she hadn’t felt this excited about a project since Tony sworn her to secrecy before bringing her into his little Bifrost group. And on the subject of the Bifrost…

“I’m going to need to know everything that you tried to do with the Stone, assuming you were actually dealing with a Stone.” She stepped around Steve, his paranoia be damned. “It’s the best way that we can help you.”

Agent Blake narrowed his eyes. “This ‘Schmidt’ of yours,” She felt Steve stiffen at the inadvertent insult, “took one of our scientists already. How do we know that you won’t try to use this information to harm us?” Scientists! How quaint. Of course, Pa had laughed about how alchemy was considered advanced when he visited the Midgardians. She had to catch herself before she could smile at them. Smiling about a human hostage in the hands of Schmidt wouldn’t impress Steve and appearing amused about a kidnapping to the humans wouldn’t help the tense situation.

“I do not know why Schmidt would want one of your researchers.” Steve stepped in. “But I do know that if we don’t cooperate both of our worlds will have to deal with what he can met out.”

Blake considered his words then turned to the Vanir looking man next to him. “Hogun, find a scientist who’s up to dealing with this.” He ordered with a jerk of his head. The shorter man nodded and made for the door. “If our team is up to working with you, we’ll see what can be done.”

“I would like to emphasize the urgency of the situation.” Steve said.

“I would like if you’d understand a bunch of exterritorial life just teleported into a top secret research facility, kidnapped my brother, and stole one of the largest possible threats to national security we’ve ever seen.” Agent Blake snapped, then closed his breath and let out a breath. “If you’re really looking to help us, work with us. We know this is urgent.” He finished.

“I understand.” Steve nodded, though he sounded like he still wanted the humans to hurry.

Agent Hogun returned with a man in a white coat and eyeglasses. The researcher didn’t appear physically harmed but he did look pale.

“Hawkinsen, right?” Agent Blake asked when the two men stopped next to them. The scientist nodded. “And you were here the entire time, from the first arrival to when you evacuated the room?”

“Yes, I saw the whole thing. I’m not entirely sure what I saw, but I saw it.”

“Can you please describe what happened?” Hawkinsen looked from Agent Blake to the Aesir and back.

“Are you-”

“Yes. Now.” Blake cut him off.

“Right, uh, right.” The man took a breath to start then stopped. “From the, uh, do you want me to give full context or just describe the events?” He pointed the question to Blake but Jana stepped again.

“Just tell me what happened immediately before Schmidt arrived.”

 “Immediately before wasn’t any different than what’s been happening since the communication shut-down happened. Relative to the last few years, though…”

“Describe to me when and how it started acting unusually, at least for a Stone.”

Hawkinsen looked to Blake for approval and began. A week ago, after Doctor Blake had attached an updated thermometer, the Stone had begun to emit low levels of ‘radiation’. She was tempted to ask what sort of radiation he was referring to but wasn’t confident that humans would even know the difference between different types of nuclear radiation. It began to emit multiple times of energy which slowly grew in strength until 37 hours ago when a sudden electro-magnetic pulse temporarily scrambled their rudimentary communication devices. (“Which is when your team was brought it, Agent Blake”) They had had an hour of erratic spikes in energy as a warning and then Schmidt arrived to grandstand and disappear through a portal with the cube and Doctor Blake.

Hawkinsen finished his explanation and silence fell over the room. Jana turned his account over in her memory and tried to pick apart what his vague terminology could mean. She tried to judge how developed they were based on the technology she could see.

“Is that silicon based?” She pointed to the glowing screens arrayed around the room.

“Um, yes. Silicon processing chips handling binary language coding. What do you use-”

“Oh, we’re far past using mass-based systems for our non-organic technology.” There would be no use trying to described how seidr worked to a human, even if binary coding (rudimentary or not) was far, far beyond what any anthropologist had expected of humans for generations.

Hawkinsen made a strange face, a mix of disbelieve, fear, and fascination.

“Can we focus?” Blake snapped. Hawkinsen nodded sheepishly and continued. Jana could hear Bartson and Romanoff murmuring quietly to each other as the Midgardian finished. She considered his words for a moment, glanced to Steve, in case and he had any further stern looks to give her, and spoke again.

“It seems that your brother- Doctor Blake?-” Blake nodded. Did that mean ‘Agent’ was his given name? Her translators were giving it the connotations of an occupation. “-had the best understanding of what the Stone was.” She concluded. Agent still seemed unsettled. “If you will share any notations he took, I might be able to understand anything he did to the Stone. It should have been dormant or ‘hiding’, for the lack of a better word. Something must have woken it up.” She really had to find a way to describe the Stone without using biologic behavior terminology. “If it began to communicate with its surroundings again, anyone who was looking for the right deformation in space-time and had considered the Space Stone in their understanding would be able to narrow down on where your Stone was.”

“And having his notes would help you how?” Blake asked. Annoying as his caution was, it was probably good that he didn’t trust the second group of aliens he met.

“If I can get an understanding of what changes had happened, I can draw possible conclusions on how Schmidt found this place, what he can do, what he has done, where he is.”

“That would be appreciated.” Steve muttered.

“I won’t guarantee anything.” Jana corrected. “It relies on what sort of records were kept.”

“We might have a problem with that.” The researcher admitted. “We, uh- We don’t have access to all of Doctor Blake’s files.”

“They’re on SHIELD computers. Administrator privileges should work just fine.” Blake said in a low voice.

“He, uhm didn’t always use SHIELD computers. He has notebooks kept in cipher and used a personal tablet to record digital data.” Hawkinson admitted. “It’s against policy-”

“Damn straight it is.” Agent Blake growled. He didn’t sound surprised, more angry but not at Hawkinsen.

“We know! We knew that it was against policy but well, um, you know him better than us.” Agent Hogun snorted. “He was paranoid as hell about anyone, SHIELD or not, seeing what data he took down. It made it damn difficult to work with him. We’ve been going off our own readings and what data he deigns to give us from his own experiments.”

“You’ve been actively experimenting with the Stone?” This was why humans needed a more advanced species to look after them. “What have you been doing?”

“Trying to figure out what the hell it is?” Hawkinson tried. “We tried to take materials samples but couldn’t chip off anything.  We burned out a diamond blade saw on that thing. We were trying to see what sort of heat capacity it had because that’s one of the few things we could even try when we started picking up the radio waves.”

“Heat capacity? You weren’t…” These stupid, short-life, monkeys. Hawkinson stopped and started to look very uncomfortable.

“What were you doing to it?” Jana asked, trying to duplicate the gentle tone Carter used with her niece whenever the girl looked especially guilty.

“We, uh, basically just built a heating chamber around it?”

“You’re security level six and we’re paying you to hold a hairdryer to a rock?” Agent almost sounded amused.

“Most of us here are theoretical physicists, Agent Blake. We’re here because we dick around with ideas. And those ideas were giving us back some freaking bizarre data.”

“’Freaking bizarre’” Jana repeated. “Yes, they were ‘freaking bizarre’ because you were actively adding external energy to one of the Norn-seen Infinity Stones!”

“Foster,” Steve warned her.

“Anyone even vaguely looking for any of the Stones would pick it up like smoke from a house fire! You just sent up a beacon to everyone in the galaxy that your backwater planet has one of the most dangerous items in the known universe!”

“Foster!” Steve snapped. “Watch yourself.”

“It’s not like I can make this situation any worse.” She snapped back. “Schmidt managed to find them with a large amount of mud a vendetta.  We can’t adequately protect them. If Schmidt knew about this who else do you think does?” The Collector, Galactus, Thanos, the Kree, whatever scraps of the Svartelites were still roaming the galaxy.

“You were just surprised by technology we’ve had for decades.” Agent Blake cut her short. “You haven’t seen earth for centuries, don’t try to guess our military might.” She snorted.

“Jana,” Steve stepped into field of vision and laid a hand on her arm. “You need to calm down. You’re no diplomat-”

“Neither are you.” That was dumb. Steve might put up with informality that would make his lieutenants cringe but saying that was a step too far, especially in front of humans during a delicate situation.

“Bartson, report back to the Rook on what we’ve learned here. We’ll need to mobilize a larger response team. Including an ambassador. Foster, you’ll go with him.”

“Understood, Sarasen.” Bartson said. She managed a nod.

“You’ll understand if I’m a bit warry about you ‘mobilizing’ anything.” Blake caught Steve’s attention again. “Your race is a myth as far as most of us are concerned. You bring an army of aliens here and you’ll be fighting the humans you say you want to protect.”

“Of course, our delegates will be the first to arrive.” He assured the human. “If any of our Einherjar arrive, it will be after considerable discourse.” Or if a flotilla of Kree ships were a dozen light minutes out of Earth’s rotation and Steve deemed it an emergency. Asgard still had the right to override any of Earth’s transient warlords for their own good both in the eyes of Yggdrasili politics and lesser lifeform rights activist the galaxy across.

Agent Blake nodded after a moment, apparently giving his rather arbitrary consent. Bartson took that as his cue and moved back to the platform. He stood directly centered on the sigil burned into the metal and snapped the chain. There was a brief pause and the light of the Bifrost filled the room. When it faded, Bartson was gone. Completely gone, no elbows or feet left behind. She had been confident in her and Tony’s work but they hadn’t had a chance to test it and there were always risks. Steve turned to her and jerked her head at the platform.

“Hold on, if it still has rotational momentum from picking him up I could throw off the locator.”

“And you didn’t think that mention it before?”

“ _Could_ , it could throw of the locator. Just give it a couple seconds.” The corner of Nat’s moved, practically knee-slapping laughter for her. Jana took her place on the platform and observed the cradle which had held the gem as she mentally counted down how long it would take for the Bifrost to cool down.

“Alright, that’s plenty of time.” She estimated. She twined the chain around her fingers and tugged.

The two seconds seemed to drag on then the sensation of slight weightlessness grew around her. The room faded as the white light spun around her and she lost the pressure of the platform beneath her feet. The sensation of simultaneously existing in two points of space and neither at the same time felt far less disorienting the second time around. Just as she was beginning to enjoying the thrill of the journey it went wrong. Suddenly she was shoved out of the bridge and back to the end she had started at.

She hit the ground on Midgard and stumbled. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Something in the bridge wasn’t right, that had to have been a safety measure. She wondered what exactly what would happen if she hadn’t been returned to Midgard then quickly forced that idea out of her mind.

“Jana?” Steve sounded like he wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed or worried.

“The bridge stopped partway through.” She said. “Something went wrong.”

“I reached that conclusion.” Steve snapped. “What I want to know is what went wrong.”

“It cut out the middle of creating the bridge, it wasn’t the locating systems.” She re-ran the memories in her head. “Something happened to the either the energy source or the focusing mechanism but… there’s no way for me to figure out from this end. Or for Banner and Tony to fix it on theirs’s, really. We’re probably trapped for the time being.” She shrugged then froze when she realized what that meant. “Oh, Norns. We’re _trapped_.”


	7. Asgard III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its not actual MCU canon, it's not actual Norse Mythology, who knows what this is but its here.

To Peggy, the time between the Observatory firing and Bartson returning seemed to drag on far longer than it actually lasted. Those few minutes as the mechanisms wound down were tense for the four Aesir present. There was no way that they hadn’t been seen by nearly the whole city. A patrol of guards would be sent who would assess the situation and then report to the one person who wouldn’t be able to write it off as a show of juvenile disobedience.

Seidr was tolerated for young men if it was a means to an ends in battle but projects far smaller than this were firmly on the feminine side of Asgard’s mild gender divide. Banner was a social outcast for reasons far more dangerous than seidr and Erik had learned to live with his position. He had had Henrick, who shared the same social standing so ostracization meant little to him. Now he had Jana and it meant absolutely nothing.

Antony was in an entirely different situation and Howard knew that better than just about anyone. His position on the throne wasn’t so secure that he could let his only heir run around doing things as scandalous as associating with seidrmen, let alone actively participating in what they were trying to do.

Tony’s disregard of social taboos aside, she couldn’t seem to have too much to do with this project either. She was the Rook, a position that relied on a carefully maintained, millennia old, illusion of unimportance. To the average citizen, commoner or noble born, the Rook was merely a messenger.

She raised and managed the flocks of messenger ravens that provided most of the communication in Asgard and Vanaheim. Her ravens were vital as they were the final stage of an intelligence arms race the Aesir finished generations ago. The birds could memorize and recite back messages thousands of words long then transport that to a specific recipient in mere moments. There was no way to ‘hack’ a raven, or to interrogate it. A message sent by bird was a message received without interference.

Unless you were the one who raised the ravens. In the Rookery tower, disguised by the clutter that came with housing thousands of birds at one time, were records of every message carried for further than any historian could recall. Who sent what to whom and when, it was kept in a vault holding a pool of knowledge larger than any other known source. Of course, what was hidden in the Rookery wasn’t known.

 The ravens were everywhere and therefore invisible. And, as the Rook, Peggy raised, trained, ensorcelled, and cared for them. But the position also held the hidden responsibility of finding threats to the crown before they ever happened. It was a skill she had been honing since she was barely more than a child.

 “There are riders coming.” Tony was the first to catch them, though he was also the one anxiously watching the bridge leading to the Bifrost rather than away from it. They drew near quickly, though the Bifrost began to spin into action before she could identify who it was. A couple seconds of light and sound and the bridge deposited one of the Aesir who had left minutes prior.

Bartson landed in the Observatory with a few steps to steady himself.

“Schmidt has an Infinity Stone.” He announced before the Bifrost even stopped its whirring hum. “He used the borderlands to ‘port to it, grabbed the thing and a human scientist, then teleported back out.”

“Ymir’s grace…” Erik swore under his breath.

“Carter!” The sinking dread she felt in the pit of her stomach grew when she recognized the voice. Tony blanched visibly. Howard’s horse skidded to a stop at the arched doorway to the Observatory.

“You better have a very good explanation for what is going on here.” He didn’t snap or growl or anything dramatic, but Howard Stark didn’t need to do any of that to make it clear when he was unhappy.

“I do.” She assured him. Before she could begin an explanation, the Bifrost began to move again.

Peggy and the men who knew what was coming turned to the opposite side of the bridge, leaving Howard fuming and without his answer. He pushed past her and stormed to the blade embedded in the center of the room.

“Howard, wait!” She yelled as he grabbed the flat of the blade and yanked up. Decades of delicately crafted instrumentation came away with the broken tool and the Bifrost made a terrible grinding noise. Howard persevered. He gripped the edge of the blade with his other hand and pulled the rest of the greatsword out of the sheath where it had laid for centuries. The glow that had been building dimmed and the spinning walls slid to a halt part way through a rotation.

“Do you know what you just did!” Tony beat them all to a reaction.

“No, but I intend to find out. You,” Howard jabbed a finger at his son’s chest. “have best pray that you have a very good answer and perhaps you’ll leave the palace grounds in the next century.”

“You- We were- ugh!” Tony threw up his hands and tried to walk away.

“Don’t turn your back on me!” Howard dropped the blade to grab Tony’s arm. A bloody handprint stood out against the golden surface. “I need to know what you are doing here, why you thought it was a good idea to associate with seidrmen and a broken relic of-”

“Of a dynasty whose power you’re failing to hold!” Tony snapped. “If we could get just the Observatory, let alone the Bifrost to work again, we wouldn’t be left blind in the galaxy. We wouldn’t be stuck trying to remember how we built space ships. We would have a chance to see what was going on in our own borders. Schmidt has an Infinity Gem and we only know that because of this!” He yanked his arm away and pointed at the control sheath. “Call it selfish but I don’t want to inherit the mess you help make!”

“And so you try fixing our problems by returning to the tools of the Allfamily?” Howard gritted out. “You don’t remember what life was like under the people who created this. It doesn’t work because they made every person in this realm reliant on their bloodline.  We will find a way to be strong without returning to the abuses of the tyrants I overthrew.”

“Don’t oversell yourself. You didn’t create this mess by yourself.” His son snapped. Peggy winced. Tony knew better than most how much she had contributed to Asgard’s current predicament.

“And! I was trying to understand this, not just repair it. I don’t want the power that you claim the Allfamily had, I don’t even want the power you have.”

Howard drew back. Tony swallowed as he realized what he just said. The father and son turned away from each other. Howard surveyed the group. His half dozen guards shifted awkwardly on the bridge.

“You sent people over the Bifrost.”

“Yes. And now they’re trapped.” Tony answered bluntly. Peggy could almost see the sarcastic comment he wanted to add.

“Jana and Romanova,” Howard concluded from the present company.

“And Steve.” Peggy added. Howard froze then spun to face her. For the first time in centuries, he legitimately looked scared to her.

She squared her shoulders and met his eyes. Now was not the time for her emotional investment to get in the way. “Schmidt has an Infinity Gem and you just trapped your military commander on another planet with no way of getting him home. We have work ahead of us, Stark.”

 


End file.
